More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators - CNBC

More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators

More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators

KEY POINTS

• After nearly a year of struggling to meet the demands of teaching during the coronavirus crisis, many educators say they are ready to switch careers or retire.
• But in order for schools to fully reopen, the U.S. needs more teachers, not fewer.

The challenges of teaching in-person or online have stretched educators to their limits.

After nearly a full year of either putting themselves at risk in a classroom or struggling to reach students remotely, many now say they may change careers or simply quit.

“Teachers have been feeling the brunt of how drastically this pandemic has changed our world,” said Colin Sharkey, executive director of the Association of American Educators, a national professional association.

“The demands that are put on them are off the charts.”

At a time when many state and local governments are struggling to recruit and retain educators, a nationwide poll of public education professionals found a growing number are ready to leave their jobs. CONTINUE READING: More teachers plan to quit as Covid stress overwhelms educators

NANCY BAILEY: Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #openonlywhensafe

Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School

Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School

Anger about schools not reopening is directed at teachers and their unions. Sometimes it’s made to sound like they’re the problem and not Covid-19! Many public schools have opened their buildings, and teachers never quit working during the pandemic.

Teachers aren’t epidemiologists, they aren’t statisticians. They want to rely on information and recommendations concerning Covid-19. But that information isn’t always clear.

Grim Milestone

With the recent somber Covid-19 milestone, we hear the virus has killed over a half million. Constant reporting about the loss of life is seared into a teacher’s collective consciousness.

There’s good news too—vaccines, more awareness of the need for better school conditions, a downturn in cases. But there’s a discussion of variants, and news about schools isn’t all good, complete, or honest.

Children

While Covid-19 is said not to affect children like adults, children do get sick.

Here’s the February 25 report about a 10-year-old child whose Covid-19 complications included amputation of his hands and legs. There have been repeated CONTINUE READING: Why Teachers Might Still Not Believe It’s Safe to Return to In-Person School

What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone? | Eclectablog

What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone? | Eclectablog

What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone?

I really tried to see “both sides” of this “reopen the schools” debate for the longest time…I know how hard it is to try to get anything done with little kids at home in normal times–multiply that by 100 during this pandemic. And I get the frustration that comes with trying to juggle work, bills, child care, and all the other responsibilities of day-to-day life, and then have big pieces and chunks of your “support system” just torn away–and not for a day or two, but for months, with seemingly no end in sight.

And add to that the stress and tension of uncertain income streams, business shutdowns, work from home arrangements, not being able to see your family…it’s bleak out there right now.

So I get it…

That is, until a school reopening advocate told me that teachers who were working virtually were nothing more than “curriculum couriers,” and if we weren’t careful we’d work ourselves right out of our jobs–that schools would just put kids in big rooms with “facilitators” and our lesson plans, and get rid of all the teachers who weren’t “willing” to “get back to work”.

That really shook me, on multiple levels.

1. The carefully constructed “mask” worn by so many in this camp (“we love our child’s teachers, but doctors and nurses are working…”, or “I’m trying to be patient with my community’s teachers, but I’m losing my patience…”) came crashing down–and despite their objections when called out, CONTINUE READING: What Will Happen When All The Teachers Are Gone? | Eclectablog

CURMUDGUCATION: Meet Your Dead Teacher

CURMUDGUCATION: Meet Your Dead Teacher

Meet Your Dead Teacher

 Well, this was going to happen sooner or later

I used to tell my students that I would teach until I died, and then have my body stuffed and mounted with animatronics while old tapes of my teaching played. Turns out that I didn't do that, but it was still a thing someone could do.

If you think teaching is the act of pouring Knowledge Stuff from one container into another, I guess this makes sense. And I can imagine the administration salivating over the prospect of a "teacher" who requires no pay, no benefits, and no lengthy hiring process to acquire.

The weirdness that the poster talks about is, I think, a residue of the natural inclination we have to think of ourselves as in a relationship with our teachers. Hell, forty-some years later I still have a warm spot in my heart for Julius Sumner Miller and his videos of physics demonstrations which, though we were clearly watching a recording, seemed live and real and for us in 1974. So finding out that a person you think has been, in some way, sort of, really talking to you--well, they're actually dead. That's a little disconcerting, like taking a step backward and having your foot meet air rather than floor.

Practically speaking, why not. Is Khan Academy going to CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Meet Your Dead Teacher